Artist Betty Beeby, who’s been intimately acquainted with Torch Lake for a long time, remembers a night when cold descended so suddenly that the lake froze without a ripple. The next morning skaters moved over the glassy surface, chasing their own shadows across the sandy bottom as fish swam far below them. Betty pulled her easel and a kitchen chair onto the ice and captured the scene in watercolors. When she told me this story I was enchanted. It would be something to see, wouldn’t it?
Posted in: Torch Lake memories
Torch Lake Views 
Louan Lechler
February 16, 2008
That clear ice was on every body of water. I remember following fish, as they swam below me, in Lake Leelanau. It was amazing. You could see far down into the lake. It was a better view than you get in the summer because the surface was still, no glare, and you could look straight down. It was literally like standing on a sheet of glass. We had a window on that mysterious world under the water.
Gerry Sell
February 16, 2008
Y’know, I think there’s a song in there somewhere, Louan!
Katherine
August 6, 2008
you could also see that it was the one time your shadow wasn’t attached to you. It was on the sand way below. very strange.
Gerry Sell
August 6, 2008
Katherine, I never thought of it that way, but you’re right – that’s just how Betty’s watercolors depict it. (Wonder what Peter Pan and Wendy would’ve made of it?) Sometime I want to see it for myself – although gas prices being what they are I don’t care if it NEVER freezes again. OK I lied. But you know what I mean.
helmy El-Sherif
March 11, 2009
Reading this great story about Torch Lake makes me seriously think of visiting in Early Spring, when I can imagine things to be extremely charming.
Gerry
March 11, 2009
Helmy, I see you’ve figured out how to Google TLV. Yes, early spring is charming – unless it snows, when it is considerably less charming.